Colleges and training providers are, first and foremost, places for learning. But, of course, opportunities for learners to add to their knowledge and shape their own character go beyond what ends up written on an interactive whiteboard after a class.
Like many people, I can safely say that I learned almost as much outside my classes as I did during them. I learned from my peers, of course, but also from the way my teachers handled themselves and treated us as students. This week, thousands of college students across the country will have been doing the same without even realising it.
I am lucky enough to visit a lot of colleges and, frankly, there are few things I enjoy more. I don’t believe there is a better way to see how the further education sector works and, in the space of a few hours, observe learners trying their hand at making intricate pieces of jewellery, laying bricks in a straight line or recording a piece of music.
Commanding respect
When you walk into a room, it takes only moments to work out which lecturer commands the respect of the group or, at the other end of the spectrum, identify those who, for whatever reason, seem disillusioned with FE and cannot quite manage to hide that from their students.
Visits also provide a unique opportunity to see college leaders in action. Principals are, of course, as different as the institutions they lead, and this is evident when watching them in their natural habitat.
We have all witnessed education leaders for whom the status and prestige of the post they hold seems much more important than the students around them.
Students will observe and judge the work ethic, grit and empathy of college staff, and it will shape their own perceptions
On one of my first college visits, the principal and I entered a lift full of students. He promptly tried to engage them in conversation, looking about as comfortable as a minor celebrity at a supermarket opening. As we walked away, I overheard some of the students ask each other who the “strange guy with the tie” was.
There are also, of course, those leaders who are immediately and spontaneously greeted by students and engaged in conversation by staff; those who clearly know every corner of their enormous campus as well as I know my own home.
I have had principals point out chairs that were not where they were meant to be, and greet every member of staff by name on the way to the furthest corner of the building. Others have abandoned me in a corridor while they ran after a student to ensure a problem from weeks ago had been solved.
Shaping perceptions
Students will remember these encounters. They will learn lessons about commitment and determination from their teachers and the support staff, and observe and judge the work ethic, grit and empathy of the college managers they meet. And it will shape their own perceptions.
We know this to be true not only from our personal experience but also from examples such as Shakira Martin, vice-president for FE at the NUS students’ union. Inspired by the great support she has received as a learner from the leaders of her college, she is determined to one day become a principal herself.
No one would argue that the job of working in a college, let alone running one, is simple. But it is worth remembering that every step you take on campus could be teaching your students a lesson that will one day prove just as important as anything in their programme of study.
@JBelgutay
